The Power of Focus

From strikes and protests to the start of classes this week, my time at American University has been nothing short of eventful.

Over the numerous events (such as my birthday yesterday 🎉), conversations, and moments that transpired in my time here so far, one insight stood out to me the most this week.

This semester, two of the most well-known finance professors at AU decided to create a seminar for first-year students (outside of the juniors and seniors they are accustomed to teaching) to house a collaborative space to discuss some of the most pressing topics in the financial world. Frankly, there are no such things as lectures in this space, and instead, discussion and arguments create the force needed for takeaways, lessons, and insight.

What amazed me the most about our time together in the first session involves what one of the professors stated as we entered discussions:

Don't let grades kill your curiosity. You're not here for a 4.0 GPA. You're here to discover what you love to do. I hope one day you do have work that's fun for you. That way, you'll never "work a day in your life."

As I begin my college journey, the word focus has been in the back of my head every day. I catch myself asking each day, where is your focus? What are you magnifying in your life right now? Where should you be fixing your attention?

In the same way a P/E ratio doesn't give the whole picture of a company (shout out to my finance people out there), GPA doesn't provide the entire picture of our lives either, and it also doesn't determine the trajectory of our performance.

I hope this post helps you all find your focus and overcome metrics that might be drawing you away from where your attention should be. Until next time!

09/04 Update: I just came across a quote from Cal Newport's Deep Work and felt the need to put it here. It fits in perfectly with this post! 👇

Who you are, what you think, feel, and do, what you love—is the sum of what you focus on. - From Deep Work by Cal Newport.

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